Change in phylogenetic community structure during succession of traditionally managed tropical rainforest in southwest China

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 8; no. 7; p. e71464
• Main Authors: Mo, Xiao-Xue, Shi, Ling-Ling, Zhang, Yong-Jiang, Zhu, Hua, Slik, J W Ferry
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 31.07.2013; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Agricultural management; Agriculture; Agriculture - methods; Algorithms; Amomum; Biodiversity; Bioinformatics; Biology; China; Cluster Analysis; Clustering; Communities; Community structure; Cultivation; Ecological succession; Ecology; Ecosystem; Environmental changes; Environmental conditions; Farmlands; Fires; Forest management; Forestry - methods; Forests; Genetic Variation; Geography; Humans; Models, Genetic; Old growth; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Plant communities; Plant diversity; Rain; Rainforests; Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase - genetics; Shifting cultivation; Slash and burn; Species diversity; Species Specificity; Succession; Trees; Trees - classification; Trees - genetics; Trees - growth & development; China; Beijing China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071464

Tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia are facing increasing and ever more intense human disturbance that often negatively affects biodiversity. The aim of this study was to determine how tree species phylogenetic diversity is affected by traditional forest management types and to understand the change in community phylogenetic structure during succession. Four types of forests with different management histories were selected for this purpose: old growth forests, understorey planted old growth forests, old secondary forests (∼200-years after slash and burn), and young secondary forests (15-50-years after slash and burn). We found that tree phylogenetic community structure changed from clustering to over-dispersion from early to late successional forests and finally became random in old-growth forest. We also found that the phylogenetic structure of the tree overstorey and understorey responded differentially to change in environmental conditions during succession. In addition, we show that slash and burn agriculture (swidden cultivation) can increase landscape level plant community evolutionary information content.